Of the $2 million, up to $1 million has been pledged as part of a fund-raising effort to begin on Wednesday, called the “Friends of J.K.O. Challenge.” Over the next three years, donations to the challenge will be matched on a 2:1 basis (every $1 donation, for example, will be matched with $2 from the grant). The funds will supplement the training of dancers at the school, which provides a preprofessional ballet training program for students 12-18.

An interview with Garrett Smith by Theodore Bale for CultureMap Houston.

The young dancer and aspiring choreographer described his past year with Norwegian National Ballet as “amazing,” and cited two highlights in particular. Smith had a successful audition for a leading role and solo parts in a recent ballet by celebrated Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato titled Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness. It’s yet another feather in his dance cap. And as if that were not enough, the second highlight was really a dream come true: working closely with master choreographer Jiří Kylián on a full program devoted to Kylián’s work.

In his premiere video for the house, which focuses on the Permanent collection, Slimane's vision becomes clearer and more attractive. It really is pure beauty. Model and Saint Laurent muse, Lida Fox, is mesmerizing as she pirouettes and arabesques around an abandoned loft in skinny wax jeans, bandeau top and ballerina flats. Her loose, stringy bob and undone button up adding a flair of nonchalance. Clementine Creevy from Cherry Glazerr brings the black and white visual to life with her haunting score 'Trick or Treat.'

This free event is limited to 250 people. It starts at 5 p.m. Thursday, with a short introduction by Enquirer dance writer David Lyman, and a rehearsal until about 6:10 p.m. After the rehearsal, guests are welcome to stay for a meet-and-greet reception with the dancers. A cash bar will be available.

A preview of the Sarasota Ballet's new season by Carrie Seidman in The Sarasota Herald-Tribune,.

The most ambitious of those plans is for a four-day festival next May celebrating the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton. The festival, which will include performances of at least a half dozen of Ashton's ballets, as well as a symposium with guest presenters, is aimed at drawing an international audience.

"My ballet teacher had agreed not to tell anyone because I was in the rugby team. But when I came top of a ballet exam the head teacher announced it at school assembly,” laughs Richard, 40, who plays new deputy head Simon Lowsley in Waterloo Road.

“So there’s me, this little Welsh curly headed kid sitting down the back with my mates thinking I’m a tough guy when the headmaster calls out my name and the whole school turns round. Everyone just fell about laughing!”

An article on the role of dance and music in the work of Brian De Palma by David Ng in The Los Angeles Times.

"Passion" isn't the first film in which De Palma makes the connection between dance and the cinematic pas de deux between camera and actor. His baroquely violent set pieces are famous for their complex choreography, specifically his gliding tracking shots and his precise arrangement of bodies moving through space.

Rail: Your sometimes-extreme approach to dancing: Does that come naturally, or is it something conscious on your part?

Mearns: I find it natural. I think that’s why I have trouble with some of Robbins’s work. For him, there was a glass wall there. The audience is looking in on what you’re doing. With Balanchine, there’s no boundary.

You use the entire phrase, and the energy doesn’t stop at your fingertips—it should go beyond the theater. You should go as far as you can. You should reach as far as you can, until the music stops.

A story on how arts organizations are currently making use of live streaming and cinema broadcasts by Roslyn Sulcas in The New York Times.

....For European companies that receive state subsidies, live-streaming and other ways of reaching wider audiences have more to do with providing broad access and bolstering one’s image as a public entity than with generating income. As Mr. Tardieu pointed out, taxpayers who do not live in Paris, or who do not have the means to travel there and pay for a night at the opera, are in these ways provided with some value for their tax money. “Unlike Mr. Gelb at the Met,” he said, “these are not money-earning initiatives.”

But for North American arts organizations, most of which have to find their own financing through a mixture of ticket sales and philanthropy, these initiatives are ultimately designed to make money, whether from cinema seat sales in the short term, or audience and fund-raising development in a longer view.''''

It also is a gluten-free, grain-free way to enjoy the berries of late summer. The blackberry canes at my house are producing a bumper crop — at least a pint a day — and the second round of raspberries is beginning to come in. The Pavlova is a unique way to enjoy those luscious berries.

The dance scene in Australia is relatively small. There isn’t a lot of funding that goes into the arts, particularly into ballet, but that’s the reality of the dance world. Australia has a number of really good dance schools, as well as a bunch of really talented dancers, however a lot of these dancers won’t find work unless they seek it, which often means moving to another country. It’s often sad to see dancers quit simply because they can’t find a job. In Australia, there are only three classical ballet companies (The Australian Ballet, The Queensland Ballet and The West Australian Ballet) as well as fourteen smaller scale contemporary dance companies. When you compare this with Europe, where you have over thirty dance companies in Germany alone… I guess you could say the competition is tough.

BAE is run by Associate Artistic Director Darla Hoover and founder Julia Dubno who are equal parts likeably cheerful and deadly serious. The cheerful part is that they cultivate a warm and supportive environment with positive encouragement all along the way. In observing the first level, when students are getting their initial exposure to ballet, I note that Hoover has one lead teacher with two other faculty members to assist plus two advanced students. Every child gets strong individual, literal hands on attention. They hold weekly faculty meetings in which they discuss every single student in the school. Your child will not fall through the cracks here or be ignored just to get your tuition dollars. The serious part is that they are in business to provide top level training for the aspiring professional and their standards are correspondingly high. It is a cohesive micro-community built with a culture of success.